The Moral Theology of Aquinas: Is It For Individuals?

thank you very much Thomas and welcome to all of you too I think what's probably a unique event in the history of the University of Chicago in the University of Chicago Divinity School we have had many theologians speak here back in 1974 and Pat and I may be the only people who remember this we had Karl Rahner and Bernhard Lonnegan for example in our month-long celebration of the medieval heritage we have never had the majesty of sorry Pilate II as the term used to be the master of the sacred Palace which is the official theologian of the Holy See for many many centuries now although they've changed the title unfortunately in the last few years so it's my pleasure to introduce voice Czechia tick to you today he was educated both in England and in Poland and then he was an alumnus of the Pontifical University of st. Thomas Aquinas the angelicum as it's called from which he obtained a licentiate in spiritual theology in 1983 and a doctorate in 1989 he was appointed theologian of the papal household which is what they call the magister sacra palazzi today he was appointed there in December 2005 by pope benedict xvi and the task of the theologian of the papal household is to advise the Pope on theological issues and check papal texts for theological clarity theological clarity he's also served on many Pontifical committees I won't read a whole list here and of course he is published considerably and he's particularly of course as any Dominican would be interested in Thomas Aquinas so what he's talking about to us today is the moral theology of Aquinas is it for individuals please join me in welcoming father guilty [Music] so that is the title of my talk the moral theology of Aquinas is it for individuals and I begin with a reflection on Juan's cannoli and Pope Francis in the poem the lantern out of doors the english jesuit gerald manley hopkins evoked the image of somebody seen walking outside of the house in the dark carrying a lamb tongue for a moment that individual is perceived and who goes there I think we're from and bound I wonder where men go by me till death or distance buys them for a moment that individual draws the attention but then what out of sight is out of mind this is our common daily reaction to unknown people but is it is not bad of the Lord Christ Minds Christ's interest what a vow amends their eyes them heart once care horns thought follows kind their ransom their rescue and first fast last friend Hopkins had a great esteem for the medieval Franciscan scholastic blessed John Donne said John Duns Scotus who searched for the heck Jada's the discus the individuality of things this approach was different from that of the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas who was interested in the qui DDoS the what earnest of things Aquinas wanted to understand so he always tried to grasp the intelligibility of things arriving at precise definitions which exhaustively explained the meaning of the studied reality SCOTUS prefer to note the uniqueness of what he observed for the poet the specific unique unrepeatable characteristic of what is described is central but Manley noted the Christ also views us in this way each one of us is a unique individual and as such we appear before the eyes of God and also before the Chavez eyes always in a moment that will never be repeated the encounter of individual with individual and also of God and man is always punctual this doesn't mean however that we cannot reflect in a theoretical way trying to understand principles causes and finality and meaning the sense of things that transcends the unique individual momentum theology as the sacred doctrine searches for the intelligibility of the divine mystery and so it works towards general definitions of the truths of faith trying to correctly grasp in simple words the essence and basic contours of what has been revealed to us for our salvation the two approaches of SCOTUS and Aquinas are different and not necessarily contradictory and both were valid each in a specific way Juan Carlos scanner name is Jay one of the leading figures of the Argentinian theology of the people wrote a commentary for the post seminal apostolic exhortation our morality of Pope Francis in its kernel I pointed to the uniqueness of concrete living people that cannot be duplicated attention for the singular individual should not however be interpreted as some form of situation ethics that does away with general principles pastoral discernment is to help in the discovery of the will of God for a given individual and in this Christ always is the final objective criteria whereas the Holy Spirit supplies the light and the subjective internal force this discernment has both a personal and an ecclesial dimension scan honor recalls that when the young Jorge there the red Roman aubergine he was struck by the idea that at Birth each individual is marked by God with a sort of password or gift that includes a task and this existential charisma from the start accompanies the individual's life not only in the moment of the discovery of her vocation but throughout all the vicissitudes of life that may at times be complicated and irregular life is composed of moments of fidelity and infidelity of consonance and dissonance of the primary call of garden the spiritual teaching of st. Ignatius Loyola is a useful assistance for the internal recognition of an effective con naturality the instinct of faith and love that urges one to react to divine promptings this comes about within current life in which there are moments of consolation and desolation and then moments of quietude responses to divine promptings that are in accord with the initial existential kerygma may take place throughout the life and so openness to the movement of the Holy Spirit in it is a long drawn-out process the perception of being led by the Spirit which is necessary for a true response is a right at more by way of analogy than through rational casuist amoral syllogisms the ability to distinguish the spirit's promptings from self delusion and from personal ideological projects that one would like to impose upon God is not easy st. Ignatius therefore spoke of a necessary indifference which is lot of carelessness but a loving preference for the will of God above that of self-will furthermore in this the effectivity needs to be set a writer it has to be freed from disordered attractions because often they deviate from the divine well since all this takes place within the personal history of each individual which is marked by conditionings and limitations that expose the person's fragility the church the field hospital has to administer tender mercy enabling a return to the spiritual life and so the church receives each individual where he or she is in the given moment of an often complicated personal life in this it has to be remembered that the moral conscience of the individual is his final moral criterion certainly the personal conscience has to be formed but it also has to be respected and not substituted by the decisions of the spiritual director or ecclesial authority this doesn't mean that the basic moral teaching given by the church may be questioned but it has to be remembered that even when an individual is in an objectively irregular sinful situation he's not automatically and totally excluded from the realm of divine grace and furthermore objective irregularity should not be identified immediately with total and unquestionably imputable culpability thus without changing the moral principles practical pastoral discipline may be varied taking into account the fact that even an incomplete participation in the life and sanctity of the church has its value there is no gradualism in the moral law but there is a gradualism in human maturity and in the stages of spiritual growth and so it's not surprising that as we move from the general to the particular from the objective moral order to the concrete individual mark marked by his or her personal history fragility and limitations we often perceived that the immediate capabilities of a given individual are limited even though they may expand through an increasing and deeper openness to divine grace the pastoral guidance that scan Allah together with PO this proposed is therefore one of attentive and merciful accompaniment facilitating the individual in the discernment of divine promptings and urging the undertaking of steps that are in the right direction elite to the healing of the disordered effectivity to an introduction of courageous love within the life at whatever stage and fragile complexity it happens to be at the moment avoiding in this self delusion and egoism effective conversion always entails a new step in the process of spiritual growth and some liberation from disorder in the emotional sphere the pastoral ministry of the church assists in this by administering sacramental graces and by accompaniment formation and witness but not by denying or replacing the personal responsibility of the individual the acceptance of the individually discerned will of God that goes against the tendencies of a Girish self will comes around in time which is which sometimes is slow the offering of an accompaniment that aids in the acquiring of spiritual maturity is of course not only the task of pastors and spiritual directors but also of lay people who may assist in the finding of the best solution for a given concrete problem without ignoring its complexity shut such advice cannot be limited to a mere and blind issuing of general moral teachings and condemning judgments bringing the insights of existential phenomenology and analytical philosophy scan ona advises that internal serenity and the fundamental general attitude that accompanies the process should be noted thus the logic of exclusion the simple category cataloguing of people in a bureaucratic approach and the thing of oneself as a controller of grace is inappropriate and insufficient since each case is individual there can be no precise univocal casuist rule to be applied indiscriminately with in every imaginable act of discernment because this this would then mean that the marvelous complication of life would not be respected and finally it needs to be noted that where there is fidelity to truth to justice and to divine mercy in the attention given to the individual there is also the internal experience of the joy of the gospel now if this reading of the mind of the most distinguished disciple of Pope Francis given by Juan Carlos kana is correct what is most striking in this train of thought is a strong reaction against the type of moral theology that was typical in the modern centuries which began with the post model driven time manual of the jesuit one other and then was followed and promoted in the church primarily by the Jesuits parva survey Pincus the dominican moral theologian who has shown the way of renewal of Thomas moral theology explained how the moral theology of the modern manuals was distorted as a result of the influence of nominalist philosophy Pincus pointed to the 14th century English Franciscan William of Ockham showing that he was the original culprit sin once akhom changed the understanding of the nature of the well introducing the idea that the will by nature is inherently and absolutely free and indifferent to truth and goodness and is set against an equally free but stronger and also arbitrary divine well and once this was generally received in the late medieval period this changed the understanding of anthropology and ethics thus when after the Council of Trent seminaries were established and theological manuals had to be written for seminarians and priests the entire organization of moral theology was tainted by nominalist thinking as a result the will of God understood as imposing moral obligation by the sheer force of divine power that does not have to take into account any rational understandable harmony in the structure of things became supreme the individual therefore had no choice hardly any right to understand things he only had the duty to obey and this in this view the norm was in the center of moral reflection the moral law was seen to express the objective moral norm and the conscience that had to apply the law for a given situation in an almost rubber-stamp fashion was understood to supply the subjective moral norm after that the human will only had to obey more or less differed in their some stress more than norms trying to offer their ultimate justification and other stress the individual act focusing almost uniquely upon its moral qualification casuist moral theology studied individual moral cases giving solutions to dilemmas and work to ensure that the conscience would be correct and well-formed in this perspective obedience to the norm and not necessarily prudence or Chatard he became the prime and general virtue commanded by the entire Fossen Pincus has shown that a host of Catholic casuist moral theologians from the 16th century onwards up to vatican ii amongst whom were Jesuits like atherogenic or no din and tan query and they played an important role but also Redemptorists like athletes and Dominicans like Merkabah and primera were all marked by the heritage of nominalism if they read Aquinas they read him through nominalist eyes failing to perceive the evangelical frost that permeates the Summa theology the modern tendency of organizing the presentation of particular morals by reference to the Decalogue a text of the old and not of the New Testament and something which the Catechism of the Catholic Church has followed home has its origin here scannin and Pope Francis seem to be reacting against this tradition and rightly so but they are not protest against the need for spiritual discernment which in faith within a personal encounter with the Living God perceives his eyeing and guiding hand in this they are truly faithful to the heritage of Saint Ignatius Loyola and his exercises the Christian needs to engage with God and recognize his accompanying divine love and he needs to be helped so as to distinguish the instinct of God from any manifestations of egoists self-will and facile escapes from the demanding divine whisperer this is not always easy but this doesn't mean that attentiveness to the Living God and his promptings is something that happens only a very advanced stages of the spiritual life even beginners and sinners and those who have landed in awkward personal emotional and irregular social situations can be drawn to attentiveness to the divine support even while they bear the consequences and responsibilities of their past blunders thus discernment of the divine call within the specific complicated context will profit from pastoral advice given to the individual but this will always be a particular suggestion addressed to that person and not a simple and cold Annunciation of universal general principle nor will it be a denial of the person's individual conscience perception and creativity in response scandola and Pope Francis seem to be reacting strongly against the approach of rigid clergymen who were more interested in imposing and maintaining a correct moral order in society rather than in an encountering God and teaching the faithful how to maintain a lively spiritual relationship with him within the context of their lives the proposed shift of focus does not seem to aim at a change of doctrine but it does invite a change of pastoral approach there where the approach was rigid and blind to the individual it's difficult of course to generalize but it is obvious the location of the church in society and the social role of the clergy differs from country to country and in particular from countries where Catholicism is dominant and countries where Catholicism has a minuscule place in current daily and mainstream culture and in the establishment now my question is can this view be found in Aquinas so the question to which I want to respond is to whether we can find justification for this pastoral approach and the presented intuitions within the moral synthesis of Aquinas is what is proposed here a complete novelty does the moral theology of Aquinas being certainly more focused on the cuidate of things than on the heck che das does it other principles that guide the individual pastoral approach survey Pincus has shown that before Aquinas is read the heritage of nominalism has to be filtered off unconsciously the modern mind falls into the trap of viewing the will as being inherently and unchanging if free and arbitrary in its functioning is interested interesting to note that Aquinas very rarely uses the common modern phrase 3 well libera voluntas instead he regularly used the expression liberum arbitral which needs to be translated as free choice it means the joint functioning of the reason and the world in which they mutually influence one another and not just a quality of the will alone thus the understanding of Liberty that underlies the moral teaching of Aquinas is not what Pinker's described as the liberty of indifference but the liberty of quality the will has an inherent natural drive towards the true God it is not a force of pressure on self and others but it rather suffers impression from the known truth that attracts it and with that input the free choice the liberty of quality moves towards the recognized thus Liberty is not a static a given from the start of a moral life like in your statue it needs to grow and it grows in collaboration with moral teaching with the inner force of race and the cultivation of the virtues such an understanding of Liberty which in time matures in quality may be correlated with the entire teaching of the scriptures including such fiends as the attitude generosity charity and the free gift of self up to consecrated chastity and martyrdom the moral life does not consist in the permanent and eternal battle battle between the more imposing will of God and the subjected will of the individual with moral obligation and defense against the imposed limitations of personal liberty being the central themes the Christian moral life consists in a friendly encounter with the personal God and this takes place through free loving expressions like those listed in the Sermon on the Mount which cannot be all locked in precise logical deductions from strict moral obligations imposed from above the Christian moral life is not built uniquely upon the rational natural law deduced from a philosophical comprehension of nature it has as this ultimate expression the new law of the gospel in which that which is most powerful is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to those who believe in Christ and it is those who are moved by the Spirit of God who are the children of God a merely philosophical reading of nature and its law is of course possible but revelation tells us more it reveals that God has chosen us before the creation of the world with the intent that we would live as God's children and so the divine election and project for us precedes creation and the natural law the vocation to be a child of God confirmed and enabled by the redemption was planned for us by God even before nature was created and before Adam had sinned in ethical reflection three approaches are possible sometimes the moral act is in the center of attention this was the approach of casuistry sometimes the norm expressed in the moral law is in the center of attention this is the approach of Jewish and Islamic ethics and sometimes virtues are in the center and this is said to be the approach of Aquinas this reading however has to be corrected Aquinas was primarily a theologian and not just a philosopher an ethicist he truly did devote an extensive attention to the virtues but he did not offer only offer a discourse on good moral habits the moral teaching of Aquinas is a part of his theology which as all theology is grounded in revelation so I also shall say a few words about the structure of the Summa of theology st. Paul wrote make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand empty rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of Christ in his body lives the fullness of divinity Colossians chapter 2 in the commentary on this line Aquinas distinguished between sophist currents of thought and authentic philosophy both of them he said can be dangerous for the faith if instead of primarily receiving Christ who is the Incarnate Word of God one begins either with esoteric ideas or even with respected philosophical truths and then one tries to measure faith through the prism of this human form this is destructive of faith faith has to reign pure as it is receipt from God and human fault also that which derives from a concrete authentic philosophy has to remain in the service of our faith and so also in the service of theology which searches for the intelligent intelligibility of faith it is Christ who is the supreme wisdom and so he has to remain as the central point of reference in all intellectual reflection of Christendom following up on this statement Aquinas went on in his commentary to st. Paul with a reflection on the Divine plenitude in Christ and to explain it he introduced a distinction between three modes of being of God in things the first mode of God's being is that of the presence of immensity God as the Creator is everywhere because the entire being that exists depends upon him besides this first omnipresence of God there is a second mode of existence of God which is specific this is the presence of God in the human soul that is inhabited by grace this is a different presence of God that is added on to the presence of immensity that manifests itself in nature grace cannot be identified with nature it is different it comes about above all through infused faith and charity which are located by God within the human spiritual faculties and finally there is a third unique mode of existence of God through the hypostatic union of the son of God made man in Christ in his body and soul and so consequently also in the sacraments there is the plenitude of God now this exegetical reflection which was focused on a deeper understanding of Christology underscored in passing an important distinction about the various modes of presence of God and the difference between these modes is real and if one is not aware of them then there is the danger that one may fall into some form of idolatry God is everywhere so his present also in the metal or the wood out of which a tabernacle is made but according to a different mode of existence that of grace God is also present in the soul of the person that he's praying in front of the tabernacle and finally according to the third mode of existence God is present in the Blessed Sacrament that inhabits the tabernacle this free fold distinction of the modes of existence of God throws a light on the structure of the Summa theology of Aquinas we know that there's been a long discussion about the meaning of a principal work of Saint Thomas in spite of the fact that he had explained the finality of the work in the first question of the Prima pass on sacred doctrine this discussion continues because contrary to our modern customs Aquinas did not repeat himself in the prologues of the three parts of the work and in introductions to sections that compose the treatises on various subjects Aquinas offered only a few lines which do not a reiterate what he had written earlier the modern reader in the meantime has forgotten what was stated in the introductions and so easily interprets the treatises in the sohmas encyclopedia articles expecting an interior coherence and completeness of the presentation in fact to understand well what Aquinas has written in the given section of the Summa the initial project of the work has to be kept in mind and also the location of the studied treatise within it as also its connection with the other treatise ISM now if we follow the into the in the intuition given in the text cited above taken from Aquinas as commentary to st. Paul it becomes clear that the Summa is a work of theology and not of philosophy and theology understood as being sacred doctrine is the knowledge of science of God in his plenitude thus it's not just sacraments of the redemption or CLE geology or human experiences or ethics that are the subject matter of this work but God is the main subject matter of this sacred teaching and also everything else that has a relationship to God on the entire so - free paths contemplates God as he is known above all due to divine revelation but also thanks the intellectual effort that scrutinizes the meaning of the revealed word natural human reflection has a place in the study of the data of faith but above all it is a search for its intelligibility and not its rationality the received truths are not measured by human reason so as to see whether they're credible or not according to our human criteria these troops are accepted in faith as they have been revealed and then there is a place for study for the searching of the meaning of these truths Aquinas never tried to prove the truths of faith he accepted them in faith and then he sought to understand their content and internal coherence and so the structure of the Summa follows the three modes of being of God the Prima past it deals with God in himself in the free persons of the Blessed Trinity and then in creation the Anthropology that we find in the Prima past tries to present human nature as it came out of the creative hands of God this anthropology is theological because the attention is always focused upon God who is there presence through the presence of immensity within creatures and so also within created man even though at the same time he could be said that this anthropology is philosophical because a studies man as he is in his nature interpreter with the support of Revelation but it is that same nature that is perceived by philosophy the perception of the presence of immensity of God in the nature of things follows therefore belief in the fact of creation and also metaphysics which reflects upon the existing being in human nature the segunda parts the second part of the Summa which is often said to be the moral section of the work also contemplates God this is possible because God is present but in another way within the acting human being as he or she is moved by grace thus the basic subject matter of the moral section of the Summa is the fecundity of the grace of God working within the life of saints in his moral theology Aquinas did not primarily study acts norms moral challenges but he studied God looking into his presence by grace within moral action the second part of the Summa therefore also offers us an anthropology but one that is certainly theological and not just philosophical because it observes man as he is transformed from within by grace this observation is undertaken to us to know more about God and in the TV of ours the first part of the Summa Aquinas also studies God but this time God present in the unit in a unique way in the person of Jesus Christ true God and true man and also present in the sacraments which are the fruits of the redemptive work of Christ so now i zoom in to God in the segunda pass the second part of the Summa theology which looks into the presence of God by grace working with him and begins with a short prologue just a few lines in which Aquinas focuses on the divine image the icon of God painted by the divine artist on human faces here are eight century Saint Saint John Damascene is sighted this Greek father of the church was deeply involved in the great conflict about icons that shook the ancient Byzantine church this was a quarrel about Christology and not about aesthetics the iconoclast said in chrome william fashion that it is impossible to paint an icon of christ in such a way that something of the divinity of God will transpire through the world of the icon and so the veneration of icons has to be rejected because it's a form of idolatry the Catholics responded the defenders of icons answered that their veneration has a special place in the life of the church because the ineffable the unimaginable God has become visible in the Incarnation through the glorious humanity of Jesus Christ we have access to God and just as the divinity of God became visible in the human life of Jesus so the divinity of God is also accessible in the body of Christ that is the church in her sacraments and sacramentals among which there are the icons the Byzantine emperors supported the iconoclast heresy using as it as a sort of state ideology because it was tied to the moan of his I'd heresy of mono talat ISM the theory that claims that in Jesus there is only one well the divine and no human well it was therefore said that the icons cannot be a means to encounter God because the humanity of Jesus was not truly such a means because his humanity was not full he was believed that Jesus was divine but his humanity was supposedly handicapped void of a human will and so he was without a human dignity without initiative in human richness the humanity of Jesus was viewed as some dead puppet held through strings by the hands of the divinity it is understandable why the Byzantine emperors supported this heresy if Jesus had no human well if his humanity was not flourishing and resplendent in his individual plenitude if he was manipulated by the heavenly father it follows that Christians have to behave in a similar way without the personally developed liberty thus they have to be passive and obedient without any individual richness and inventiveness since the divinity was not visible in the humanity of Christ then the grace of God is not accessible in the venerated icon of Christ and even more so it is not perceptible in that supreme icon of God that is the free human person touched and moved by grace the human passivity that is a consequence of this field Theological ideology explains why the Byzantine emperors persecuted so brutally the confessors of the faithful government is easier when people think that they have to be passive without any personal initiatives and the expansion of this heresy explains why the Christians in the Middle East succumbed so easily to the Muslims because being locked in fatalism they did not react the new challenges in st. John Damascene of course objected to this and in his defense of the icons he made a profound comment about the image or icon of God that is visible in the human being that is moved by grace and it is precisely this remark that Aquinas put in the prologue of his moral theology of the segunda bas God does not become perceptible in the face of the self-centered person that is passive neurotic depressive perplexed mentally perturbed or succumbing to moral vices nor in the person that is manipulated by others the divine image the divine icon becomes visible only in the mature person that has free distinctive characteristics such a person Falls the light of the intellect is capable of making free choices the libram arbitral in which the reason and will function together when personal acts are elicited acts that are made with conviction and full engagement and this person is governed from within that is through a gift of self which has its ultimate source in a personal integrity and is not something that has been imposed from without them thus an individual that maybe is suffering from some psychic or mental fragility or has passed through difficult psychic in even moral trials but nevertheless in faith reaches out to God and is personally charitable such an individual is an icon of God making something of the divinity resplendent here and now this short patristic reference on the icon of God in the mature acting person that is quoted in the opening lines of acquaintances moral theology offers us a basic hermeneutic key for its interpretation when this initial perspective is noticed it becomes clear that the square that the second are parts of the Summa devoted to moral theology deals with the fecundity of God but not that which took place at the moment of creation because that has already been presented in the Prima parts but that specific fecundity which takes place through grace when the Christian becomes consciously receptive of interior divine movement and reacts to it with a creativity in personal action and the working of Graces then explained by Aquinas throughout the entire second Abbas of the Summa and not and not only in the final six questions of the Prima segunda which articulates some detailed specific questions about grace so we can see the icon of God the image of God as it's painted from within not by external makeup by within by the mature and who may view the wrinkled face of mother Teresa of Calcutta and recognize in her face something of the image of God seeing the charity of her gift of self hand since the entire Sumer deals with God Aquinas then explains that the segunda Parris deals with the movement of man towards God he could have described this movement using the Latin word Marshall but he preferred the word Matos which signifies a movement that is internal but at the same time may come from without so God works in man but at the same time man moves himself as he is moved by God this is possible because the first cause understood in the metaphysical and not temporal sense acts within the second cause in such a way that the second cause loses nothing of its dignity as it is moved by the first cause the divine and human will are not in constant opposition because the Divine Will is of a completely different order and so it works within the human well liberating it from within the individual elicits personal acts but the grace works within them and thus acts that such acts are fully human and fully divine at the same time thus there is a divine fecundity within human action in the first part of the segunda Paris we find therefore the principles of divine transformation of free and mature human action and in the second part the power of grace is presented in its functioning within the entire psyche in various and in various vocations within the church the fact that a coin is used a dry and precise language and that his reflection is speculative being therefore apt for the formulation of definitions that allow for a clear and knowledge of the kwid Dita's of the mysterious divine action should not prevent us from noting the evangelical and Theological breath that animates the entire world the major part of the segunda secunda analyzes one-by-one the theological or moral virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are tied with them these are stable dispositions infused by God in the soul the gifts are passive and recept receptive in respect to God and the virtues Express the active and creative response of the individual to the movement of God the account of virtues by way of analogy uses psychological and philosophical terms because we don't have a special language for the description of the supernaturals but the discourse of Aquinas is always focused on the supernatural virtues and not on the natural virtues that are acquired by human effort the fecundity of grace manifests itself in the virtues more so than in the gifts of the holy spirit the fact that somebody has had butyl inspirations does not make him into a living icon of God only a person who does good works and not just in passing but creatively and permanently because the individual has stable dispositions towards the good done for the good pleasure of God that person inclines others to praise the father who is in heaven the prime focus on grace is the underlying theme that covers the entire structure of the Sukhwinder pass the Aquinas is moral theology Christian morality is not viewed here only through the prism of a series of acts good or bad nor through moral norms supplied by the moral law but it is viewed through all the virtues because it is grace that is the primary subject matter of this entire reflection while the various treaties are read including the most psychological on the human acts on the passions on the theological dimension centered upon grace all this should not be forgotten also the treatises on sin is given in a positive perspective because it analyzes what is missing when the fecundity of grace is blocked by obstacles and the segunda segunda the deals of particular morals describes in special it the same as supernatural organism of grace that is suspended on the structural elements of the human psyche in the theological virtues it is God Himself who overcomes the spiritual faculties of the Christian the intellect and the will focusing them towards God and in the moral virtues these spiritual faculties together of the passions are permanently directed towards the true God which is always chosen personally and with creativity the fifty verb moral virtues that are analyzed by Aquinas need to be viewed viewed as a long drawn out presentation of the fecundity of grace which manifests itself in the Christian and finally the vocations and missions of the church which are very some particular are discussed at the end showing that in them to the fecundity of grace is exposed this is something that often a seminarian when he's studying in the initial years in seminary formation the seminary and complains and says I don't feel this but you can't feel this this is the presentation of what grace does in us but as we mature in life we perceive this with greater depth but it's good for the seminary and to study to have the the terminology to have the the categories to be able to recognize this the fact that the entire second apart describes the fecundity of grace and articulates this in a speculative fashion explains why the presentation often seems to be nebulous this is a vision from the top from the perspective of the saint who has been fully transformed by grace most of us have not yet reached that height and that stage Aquinas didn't give us here description of the process of spiritual growth like that which we find in Carmelite theology or in the exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola at the beginning of the spiritual life divine prompting is recognized only in dramatic movements that lead to fundamental life decisions like that of marriage or entry into religious life a certain spiritual and moral maturity is needed before the supernatural organism composed of the infused virtues gifts of the Holy Spirit and Beatitudes is somehow discerned in a more regular fashion but the general vision of the end of the journey that is the supreme transformation by grace is valid and useful as it offers clarity and allows one to have certitude while being on the way if the understanding of the end will be erroneous than the primary steps will also be erroneous the comprehensive vision of Aquinas is not one of practical pastoral theology Aquinas hardly mentioned women or children he didn't write about their specific needs this is because he dealt with theology his mind was focused on God and so his moral theology primarily speaks of the transformation that God conducts in all souls insistence upon this is pertinent because it helps in the maintaining of a lively faith that has the Living God as its object incidentally we can note a similar basic focus in veritatis splendor' the encyclical of saint john paul ii on the principles of morals the chapter titles of the encyclical taken from the new testament add up to form a dialogue teacher what good must I do do not be conformed to this world lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power it follows therefore that it's the cross of Christ that is in the center of attention in moral theology and John Paul the second was concerned that the fecundity of the Paschal mystery would not be ignored that it would not be wasted that is why he insisted that every individual be viewed in the light of Christ's Redemption and jump over second rows it would be a very serious error to conclude that the Church's teaching is essentially only an ideal which must then be adapted proportion graduated to the so called concrete possibilities of man according to a balancing of the goods in question but what are the concrete possibilities of man and of which man are we speaking of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed by Christ this is what is at stake the reality of Christ's Redemption Christ has redeemed us this means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being he has set our freedom free from the domination of concupiscence and if redeemed man still sins this is not due to the imperfection of Christ's redemptive act but to man's will not avail himself of the grace which flows from that item God's command is of course proportion to man's capabilities but to the capabilities of the man to whom the Holy Spirit has been given and of the man who though he has fallen into sin can always obtain pardon and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit now some few practical pastoral conclusions with which I shall end in the light of Aquinas is moral theology pastoral concern expressed towards an individual who has a marvelously complicated his life is not to confirm him in his sorry state but primarily it has to witness to the power of grace that is a real possibility which can be trusted the deeper the faith centred upon God and the more regular is the exercise of faith the more the individual becomes transparent to the workings of race but it is of course true that God like a conducting GPS receives the sinner at the point where he or she happens to be at the very moment and so the spiritual guide needs to facilitate the recognition of the divine support in that moment and nudge towards Christian maturity without imposing himself upon that person those whose moral orientation has been formed by the tradition of the casuist manuals of moral theology often react with surprise in the discovery that Aquinas does not have a treatise on the ancients in the Summa theology other elements of the acting person psyche are discussed in detail whereas the conscience is hardly mentioned this is in stark contrast with the modern manuals that focus primarily upon the law understood as the objective norm and the conscience understood as the subjective norm the truly formed conscience distinct from self will was often presented in modern thought as Blessed John Henry Newman had insisted as the voice of God Aquinas didn't use this image he saw the conscience as an act of the practical reason perceiving the light of truth rather than as the voice of God addressed to the spiritual ear so the practical reason of course has a central role in moral action and acquaintances mentioned it in almost every treatise of the primacy London but instead of writing about the conscience Aquinas following the classical ethical tradition focused mainly on the cardinal virtue of prudence modern theology reversed the proportions excessively stressing the conscience and minimizing the role of prudence in the mind of Aquinas the function of prudence is central but this virtue needs to be formed and it is a general virtue that has an impact on the entire face since the meaning of words has changed over the centuries and today prudence is often identified with an uninvolved external caution coming from somebody who doesn't know what you're doing here a distant Arendt speech to her nephew who is a pilot of a plane be careful don't fly too high this is the modern perception of program well that's why I don't like the term and I think we need to change we need to translate the Latin palencia as creative resourcefulness it expresses and conditions the free choice in action after the conscience the act of the practical reason has perceived the moral challenge there then comes the moment of free choice in subsequent action and this is not merely an act of the will alone which would be obedient or disobedience of the conscience in free choice the liberal arbitral the reason and the well combined and joint action this may be spelt out in three or four stages of the intention decision occasionally the liberation that precedes the decision and finally the execution in these four stages both the reason and the will are present mutually influencing one another inviting creatively to some may be very generous response by no means is the response to conscience simple often there are multiple ways how an individual may react to a perceived challenge the multiplicity of possible courses of action doesn't answer that the truth of the matter may be ignored the truth within the action has to be respected as it is brought into the action by the individuals reasoned by way of by ways of reaction to the truth may be diverse some people may perceive the truth of a moral challenge directly but then they have difficulty in eliciting a personal and creative response to the initial light of conscience because they have not yet arrived at a personal maturity that has why the virtue of prudence of this creative resourcefulness needs to be formed and furthermore it needs to be taught that the power of race called in by active faith may be introduced into each of each one of these three or four stages of free choice it follows therefore that the acts of the moral virtues that are steered by the cardinal virtue of prudence and even more so are steered by the theological virtue of charity are creative the virtuous person is always inventive and unpredictable surprising others by the richness of personal responses in the vision of coyness it's clear that prudence has to be personal nobody can we're from without can replace the individual in the eliciting of acts of moral virtues which are creative and diverse in their richness ultimately what is decisive his faith that is appellative in love and this clause feathers in the election are Parente which is the conclusion of the letter to Galatians is perceived by Aquinas as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit at work and it pins together the entire moral theology Aquinas knew that in their functioning moral virtues need the backing of an ordered effectivity the virtues help to bring order into the effectivity but they are also sometimes hindered by deeply rooted inclinations deriving from the flesh the senses the instinct to seracs Yanni's the and the instinct of spiritus sancti all combined in urging towards a life that is attentive to the spirits prompting and manifests the beauty of divine charity but this doesn't happen immediately and in particular when contrary forces spring from the sensitive realm that is why the arrival of personal liberty and a life of virtue is a process however more Aquinas knew the distinction between the objective irrationality of a sinful Act and its culpability which is another issue an act may be objectively sinful causing havoc in the person on social life and yet its culpability may be limited openness to grace meaning the capacity to discern the instinct of the holy spirit that inspires and instigates to God creative virtuous action is only possible in the life of faith faith is a gift of grace received at baptism it is a divine tool that allows one to trigger race which them when the mind reaches out beyond the limits of natural rationality towards the living garden the contents of faith is transmitted in the church thanks to which faith is structured but faith itself is not the fruit of teaching or of a good example it is a divine gift and it may grow in the soul even when the intellectual content is meager when faith is formed by charity the individual is in a state of sanctifying grace this means that the individual is capable of truly saying credo in Deum I believe towards God meaning the entire being is grasped and set in movement out of pure love for God towards him when faith is not formed by charity as happens when individual is in a state of sin that is called mortal piss precisely because it kills the life of sanctifying grace faith then still persists in the soul in an unformed state such an individual is capable of saying cradled a womb s say I believe that God exists and cradled air or I believe God I believe what he has said even though often little flows from such an unformed faith it is only when an individual sins directly against faith that even an unformed faith is extinguished thus somebody being in the state of mortal sin having excluded demanding charity may still have an unformed faith that is the fruit of grace such an individual as the Council of Trent has insisted is still in the church and so the church has the pastoral mission of maintaining even the unformed but still present faith of mortal sinners in the hope that it will continue grow and through attentiveness to active grace actual Grace's lead to a true charity that will ultimately form the faith and ensure the true I believe towards God that is in essence is sanctity in the moral theology of Aquinas it's not the natural law that is the ultimate point of reference but the new law of grace known as the law of the gospel or the law of the spirit or as st. Paul says the Lord the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Aquinas teaches that the new law is composed of two elements the primary inner grace of the Holy Spirit and the second element that is the doctrine contained in the text of the Gospels in particular in the Sermon on the Mount but also in the church teaching passed on by pastors and the laity this teaching given orally and in writing has the dual finality of disposing to the grace of the Holy Spirit and showing how to use that grace in practice the teaching is transmitted in the church in the official Magisterium and imp reaching and in individual spiritual direction it bears fruit only when it is in unison with the inner faith that opens up to the grace of the Holy Spirit the two elements of the new law have to be together because teaching itself even if it is correct does not save it is the grace of God that saves and so the exercise of the theological virtues is primary but the teaching is necessary at no moment in time can we do away with the second element it's not like a temporary scaffolding that is taken down once the building is built only in eternity the teaching will be unnecessary the fact that the inner life in a grace of the Holy Spirit works in unison with sacred teaching transmitted by the text of the Gospels by theology and by the nudging and guidance of pastors and true friends means that the individual may be liberated from self delusion and from mistaking emotions and personal projects for divine inspirations external support is needed in discernment but it may be found in the writings and the Gospels and catechisms and also in the supporting words of those who accompany on the journey of faith but this accompaniment is not to replace the individual's personal responsibility and perception we do not need to run to spiritual directors every time we have an inspiration in conclusion therefore it has to be said that the moral theology of Aquinas even though it offers an objective discourse it can be applied to the life of individuals Aquinas doesn't deny the individual person's dignity and capacity to think and decide in a responsible way the engaging with God in faith and love involves the person's reason and well as they perceive the true God mere emotional sincerity and serenity do not suffice if truth is ignored but that truth has to be personally perceived and the reaction to it if it is to be authentic also has to be personal life doesn't consist in a passive execution of externally imposed moral instruction it consists in the creative reaction to challenges as they unfold in life in union with the power of God personally brought in by a lively faith animated by the love of God what is our life's vocation is not something that we discover at birth or at baptism what is our life's vocation we discover at the moment of death when the most important moment of life is perceived and that life in love is handed over to God those are the children of God who allow themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit Romans chapter 8 thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: Lumen Christi Institute

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Keywords: Wojciech Giertych, Papal Theologian, Lumen Christi Institute, Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Divinity School, Pope Francis

Id: -5KdzGFJpgo

Length: 65min 10sec (3910 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2018